Julian Leatherdale High Tea

Join author Julian Leatherdale for a high tea of scones, sandwiches, bubbly & sweets to celebrate the release of Death in the Ladies' Goddess Club, a riveting noir thriller of murder & blackmail, family drama & love, all set within the shady underbelly of 1930s Kings Cross and its glamorous fringe.  

 

Get into the spirit of things by dressing up in an outfit that reeks of bohemian 1930s Sydney and you could win a store gift voucher to the value of ... you guessed it: $30! 

 

Bookings essential. Tickets to the High Tea are just $25, or buy a combo ticket + pre-ordered copy of Julian's book for $50 - a saving of $5. This is going to be a wonderful afternoon, so get in quick!  . 

 

About the Book

'Crime's not a woman's business, Joanie. It's not some bloody game.' 

 

In the murky world of Kings Cross in 1932, aspiring crime writer Joan Linderman and her friend and flatmate Bernice Becker live the wild bohemian life, a carnival of parties and fancy-dress artists' balls.  

 

One Saturday night, Joan is thrown headfirst into a real crime when she finds Ellie, her neighbour, murdered. To prove her worth as a crime writer and bring Ellie's killer to justice, Joan secretly investigates the case in the footsteps of Sergeant Lillian Armfield.  

But as Joan digs deeper, her list of suspects grows from the luxury apartment blocks of Sydney's rich to the brothels and nightclubs of the Cross's underclass.  

 

Death in the Ladies' Goddess Club is a riveting noir crime thriller with more surprises than even novelist Joan bargained for: blackmail, kidnapping, drug-peddling, a pagan sex cult, undercover cops, and a shocking confession.  

 

From the shadows of bohemian and underworld Kings Cross, who will emerge to tell the real story?    

 

Praise for The Opal Dragonfly

 “I was enthralled ... the best written book I've read in a decade.” – Mark Teseschi AM.  

 

About the Author

Julian Leatherdale's first love was theatre. On graduation, he wrote lyrics for four comedy cabarets and a two-act musical. In 2017, he wrote the short play A Life in Ten Meals for the theatre project Breaking Bread, and in 2018 the black comedy The Man Who Became Santa. He discovered a passion for popular history as a staff writer, researcher and photo editor for Time-Life's Australians At War series. He later researched and co-wrote two Film Australia-ABC documentaries, Return to Sandakan and The Forgotten Force, and was an image researcher at the State Library of New South Wales. 

 

Julian was the public relations manager for a hotel school in the Blue Mountains where he lives with his family. His first novel, Palace of Tears, was published by Allen & Unwin in 2015 and HarperCollins Germany in 2016. His essay on the Hydro Majestic and Mark Foy was published on the Dictionary of Sydney website for the 2015 Blue Mountains Icons project. His second novel, The Opal Dragonfly, was published in 2018. His debut YA novel, The Phantasmic Detective Agency, will be published by Eagle Books in 2020. 

 

Death in the Ladies' Goddess Club is his third adult novel.